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Sometimes time is not on your side, and 15 year-old Jared Garber is about to find that out the hard way. Without warning, the entire Garber family is ripped from their Kansas home, separated, and transported into a distant and perplexing future. Disconnected from everything he understands, Jared must quickly learn how and why he was taken from his prior life. Back in Kansas, news of the Garber family disappearance has spread like wildfire. When Edie Boyd receives ominous notes in her school locker that ask difficult questions about the nature of time, she knows they have to be about the Garbers. Whoever knows the truth is trying to let Edie in on the secret. But when she and her friend Meg investigate they are sent to a time when their own families believe them dead, their friends are all adults, and the world has been radically transformed. Stuck in a time that is most definitely not their own, they can’t just click their heels three times to return home. Instead, Edie and Meg are forced to make a dangerous journey across the country to confront the man who sent them into the future. Meanwhile, Jared must help Edie learn the truth about their world and come to terms with the frightening reality of who they really are. With action in cyberspace and reality colliding through parallel worlds full of vibrant characters and thrilling suspense, The Secret Root is a dramatic ride through mind-bending dimensions, wild technology and unfamiliar territory that stretches to the ends of time…and beyond.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

D.S. Cahr has been a bass player, a music journalist, an intellectual property attorney, a blogger and the type of person who dresses up in movie-accurate costumes for Star Wars conventions. More importantly, Cahr is currently hard at work on book two of "The Mesh Chronicles."

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

The Secret Root is one of the best books I've ever read! I found it so exciting that I couldn't put it down!! D. S. Cahr does a very good job setting the scene. The book is from the perspective of Edie Boyd, a girl in middle school living with her aunt and uncle in Kansas, and Jared Garber, also in middle school, living with his mom, dad and sister in Kansas. Mainly about time travel and its consequences and excitements, the book is full of unexpected twists and turns, which makes it hard to put down. This book is a little complicated, but not confusing. I recommend this book for ages 9+ (if the 9 year old is a really good reader.) There is a sequel coming out, and when it does, I will immediately put down the book I am reading at that time and start D. S. Cahr's sequel.

First, let me say that as a woman with 2 kids, teenager and preteen, I've read more books that I can even begin to count. This is rated as one of those books, to me, that I couldn't put down. I'm usually not in to Si-Fi type books, and this, in some ways, is something of that nature.

I give my rating for this book, 5 stars, because it really is THAT good. It captured me in the first chapter and held me to the last word. Saying that, had it not been Free, for me through Amazon, I probably would not have read it. Even with all the great reviews. Just because it's a series that was released in 2012 and here it is 2014 and the second one still hasn't be released. I just do not understand why so many great books are released as, so long in between, books. Even as good as this book was, and I REALLY want to finish with the whole stories, I probably won't. I understand that Authors write these REALLY long GREAT books, and they really can't be put all into one book...so they pretty much have to put them in a series...I get that. I'm just hear to say, that I know a lot of Authors have lost their readers, just because they release a really great book, then take for ever to release the others to the book. I know it takes time to write these books, I get that as well. But it seems to me, that an Author doesn't understand that the longer they wait to release the second, third and so on, book, great chances are that they'll loose their following. I feel, an Author would be better off to wait on the release of their first book, till their second book is nearly done. That way, only a month or so will go by in between books. Because when an Author waits months and months, even a year or more, to release more of the series, he/she has probably lost 100s of readers, if not more.Read more ›

This mind-bending new novel is not just for Young Adults - it spans everything from time travel to the world of cyber-tech to the deepest philosophical questions. Brilliantly crafted and peppered with complex characters, The Secret Root propels you on a journey not just through time, but through the nature of the mind itself. I was unable to put it down - a must-read book sure to become an instant classic!

Ready to be transported into an adventure that magically blends elements of "The Wizard Of Oz" and the "The Matrix" but with an original storyline that captivates and excites? "The Secret Root" is all that and more. Edie and. Meg are a teen dynamic duo who are catapulted from present day Kansas into the future by what seems to be a random event but that makes "time a trap." Their friendship forms the nucleus of this tale of adventure with a wide cast of memorable characters that support them in unique ways on their journey to try to return home. Things aren't always what they seem in "The Secret Root" especially when it comes to who we should trust and those with questionable intentions. This is especially true with a character named Hronck, who is a cross between Edison, The Wizard of Oz and a James Bond villain seeking world domination. Memorable and original, Hronck almost steals the book until he meets his match in the form of our fearless young heroines.

"The Secret Root" also offers a novel perspective on how we imagine our lives will turn out versus what really happens. Edie and Meg get that rare glimpse into what really happens to their friends when they grow-up causing them to self-reflect on what they would be like if they were adults. Plus, there is the challenge of how the girls deal with these friends that were the same age them yesterday and today are adults (and vice versa).

The book bucks the current YA sci fi trend of using a post apocalyptic setting to generate empathy for its characters and storyline. Instead, we follow a digital Yellow Brick road to a bright, shiny and positive not too distant future. I found this to be a refreshing change from books like "The Hunger Games", "Wool" and "Divergent" making the story extremely readable and engaging.Read more ›

It is said that there is nothing really new in writing (or music for that matter). Everything resembles something that came before it. The trick is to make the reader appreciate the writing itself, create characters that are believable and likable, and a story that grabs you and makes you want to finish the book. Even though at the same time, you don't want it to end.The Secret Root falls somewhere in the middle for me. As other reviewers have correctly pointed out, it's a melding of the “Wizard of Oz” and “The Matrix”. A nice twist in this story is the author tells us that the computer network (aka the Matrix) was created by long-ago people for a reason. Of course we never learn the reason (maybe the sequels?). The protagonists are supposed to find the ROOT in the network and turn it over to someone. We never learn what the ROOT is or why it needs to be found. The "bad guys" are both questionable and appear to be fighting for the "power" to rule the world.Not a bad story and the writing flows right along. But the description of the world as it will be in in 25-years is a bit of a stretch. I guess that's the point of the story.